The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 8:35 am
This is one freaking hilarious movie. Plot-wise it goes exactly where you think it's going to go, as deepdown it's a very straightforward romantic comedy. But it never does the same old thing in quite the same old way. It feels simultaneously familiar and brand new.
This is one of those semi-improvised ensemble comedies like "Anchorman", Öffice Space or a Christopher Guest comedy, and in this one everyone in the cast knows how to be funny. Steve Carrell, while brilliant, knows enough to step back and let the rest of the cast, especially his three co-worker friends, get all the big laughs. As funny as Carrell is, he plays the straight man for a surprisingly large chunk of this movie.
Not to say he doesn't have his moments. The scene where Carrell gets his chest waxed is one of those memorable, outrageous scenes where the audience loses control with laughter and the movie almost comes off its hinges, and is the scene everyone will be talking about afterward.
The best thing about this movie is that while it's silly and goes for laughs above all else, everyone manages to make us care about their characters. They all feel authentic in their own way, and they all represent genuine aspects of the male condition in a way that resonated with me over & over. Oddly enough, I was reminded of "Sideways"more than once, though the two movies are not at all ailke.
SPOILER, SORT OF, NOT REALLY
Looking at it from a film student perspective, the screenplay actually tries to do some interesting things with its theme. The action figures and the bicycle at first seem merely props to establish his character, but they actually manage to work them in as weightier metaphors without it feeling obvious or forced. Near the end when he crashes through the billboard on his bike, I realized they were actually working pretty hard at making a real movie out of this by uses of visual imagery to underscore their themes. Nice.
It's very raunchy. I would definitely respect the movie's R rating and kids should be kept away.
A very good time. A
This is one of those semi-improvised ensemble comedies like "Anchorman", Öffice Space or a Christopher Guest comedy, and in this one everyone in the cast knows how to be funny. Steve Carrell, while brilliant, knows enough to step back and let the rest of the cast, especially his three co-worker friends, get all the big laughs. As funny as Carrell is, he plays the straight man for a surprisingly large chunk of this movie.
Not to say he doesn't have his moments. The scene where Carrell gets his chest waxed is one of those memorable, outrageous scenes where the audience loses control with laughter and the movie almost comes off its hinges, and is the scene everyone will be talking about afterward.
The best thing about this movie is that while it's silly and goes for laughs above all else, everyone manages to make us care about their characters. They all feel authentic in their own way, and they all represent genuine aspects of the male condition in a way that resonated with me over & over. Oddly enough, I was reminded of "Sideways"more than once, though the two movies are not at all ailke.
SPOILER, SORT OF, NOT REALLY
Looking at it from a film student perspective, the screenplay actually tries to do some interesting things with its theme. The action figures and the bicycle at first seem merely props to establish his character, but they actually manage to work them in as weightier metaphors without it feeling obvious or forced. Near the end when he crashes through the billboard on his bike, I realized they were actually working pretty hard at making a real movie out of this by uses of visual imagery to underscore their themes. Nice.
It's very raunchy. I would definitely respect the movie's R rating and kids should be kept away.
A very good time. A
